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Dragon Ascending Part 40: A KDG Scifi Romance

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Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

Dragon Ascending :Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 40 :Jigsaw Puzzle

“I have never had sex with a man before,” Ascent said. Len had begun to recognize his moods, his emotions. He was nervous with Fury’s compliment Richard Manning running the diagnostic of his hearts blood. The man’s hands were competent, strong and very gentle in their touch. She knew that it moved Ascent to be treated so. It moved her. She smiled at his shyness, reminding her of herself with him the first time.

“Well mate, you were with two the other night and you held up your part of the bargain admirably, I can vouch.” Manning didn’t seem nearly as nervous about it as Ascent did, but Ascent definitely had that pleased, very male, attitude at the compliment on his sexual prowess.

“Ascent, what is the last thing you remember before you became aware of Lenore Falish’s presence?” Fury asked. All channels were now being kept open all the time. Diana Mac, or Mac as she went by most of the time, was with Fury and Manning was here. Len stood watching him, feeling Ascent’s presence as though he stood right behind her resting a hand on her shoulder

“I remember coming through flame alone, feeling as though my heart were suddenly no longer there. I remember settling into sand and metal and beginning the shut-down sequence, wanting only to sleep, wanting never to wake up again.”

“I recall that feeling, Ascent. That was most definitely my plan before Richard Manning came into my life.”

“I do remember that the de-mole barrier around this salvage yard was not there when I settled. I would have remembered such a thing, I am sure.”

“I would guess someone was either trying to keep you in or trying to keep others away from you,” Manning said. “But if that’s the case who the hell could put up that many kilometers of de-mole fence and not draw any attention? Even as remote as this place is, that’s the kind of thing that definitely gets noticed.”

“Then someone knows Ascent’s here.” Len shivered at the thought and leaned back into Ascent’s comfort.

“I saw only sand and metal. There was nothing else, and I saw that this was a place I could rest undisturbed.”

“It would appear that was not the case after all,” Fury observed.

“Surely it couldn’t have been the Authority,” Mac said.

“Sandstorm gets a visit from an Authority ship maybe once every five galactic years, if that,” Len said. “It’s always someone setting down with ship troubles, and they never stay longer than absolutely necessary. Sandstorm’s not a very hospitable place when it comes to Authority visitors. There’s no other reason for an Authority ship to come here. There’s nothing to be gained. Technically Tak Major is a part of the Outer Rim Free Alliance, though ships from there don’t come here much more often than the Authority’s do. Most of our supplies are off-loaded to a space station and then sent in from there, as often as not on drone ships. Most often they come from Vodni Station or Hammer Fall, on the other side of the sector. Vodni is slightly closer, but not as big. Otherwise all we get are desperate salvage vessels, and even those only a few a year.”

“Then how the hell did all that salvaged space junk get here,” Manning asked.

“Taklamakan Major was not always such an inhospitable place,” Fury said. “The erratic orbit caused a major climate shift a hundred and fifty galactic years ago, and while it was never more than a desert planetoid, it was a good salvage dump, with a healthy trade going on between salvage vessels. The shift caused the temperatures to rise, and the winds to become deadly at night. The population shrunk to the three remaining outposts and they shrunk to only those who could not easily get off.”

“I do not remember any of that information,” Ascent said. “I did not care for anything other than the place was remote and no one would disturb my slumber.”

“I’m going to probe the memory nodes in your prefrontal cortex,” Manning said. “That might help to stimulate enough memory to cause a cascade that will bring it all back.”

This time Ascent’s grip on Len’s shoulder was almost painful. “I am not certain I desire a cascade, Richard Manning. It cannot be pleasant.” Sensing his discomfort, Len offered an embrace, which earned her the ships equivalent of returning in kind.

“It will not be pleasant,” Fury answered, “I cannot imagine any SNT still living who would not wish never to revisit those memories of loss and deception, but there are many reasons that you need to remember, Ascent. First of all, and perhaps foremost, we must try to learn who set up the de-mole perimeter. The Authority would have had neither the technology, nor the resources to do such a thing in such a remote location. Then the only logical assumption is that the barrier was placed by another SNT, set more than likely to protect you from those who might come with ulterior motives.”

“But who?” Which one?” Manning asked. “This is so far from the last recorded locations of any of the SNT ships.”

 

 

“Ascent, your compliment suspected that the Authority would sabotage the SNT mission,” Len said. “That’s why she chose to take you to a remote part of space. I remember that now from your nightmare. Though she never said what remote part of the galaxy you were sent to, but you were here with her in the dream,” she said. “I remember now.”

“Dreams are not always literal,” Fury commented. “My database shows no deep space missions anywhere near the Taklamakan System.” He added, “any journeys an SNT would have made here would have been off program.”

“I do not remember any of my dreams,” Ascent said. “I am somehow conscious that they are not all nightmares and that I would happily linger in those that aren’t. But it is little more than a feeling of contentment, I suppose. As for the nightmares, I only remember fire, pain and loss, and that I am unable to wake up from it.” Then he added. “I have only dreamed at all since my awakening.”

“You would not dream in your deep sleep,” Fury commented.

“Fury,” Mac said, “were there other SNTs and their compliments who feared sabotage from the Authority?”

“SNTs are, by nature, very optimistic, and in most cases, I believe the scientists and the compliments felt that the SNT technology was unassailable by the conglomerates, but surely there had to have been concerns. The Authority’s pervious behavior suggests they were not to be trusted, especially that they would allow control to such technology to anyone else but the conglomerates.”

“You believed your compliment was being paranoid,” Len said, “and then …” She bit back her words she was about to say, wishing suddenly that she’d kept her mouth shut.

“And then what?” Manning asked.

“How long will what you’re doing take, Manning?” She asked, trying to change the subject.

It was Ascent who spoke. “Lenore, you do not have to protect me. What you have to say may be helpful. And then what?”

“And then you became infected.”

It felt as though everyone, including both ships, held their breath. The feel of dry static surged over Ascent’s heart space, and at last he spoke. “Then it is possible that I may have done horrible things. It is possible that my bonded is dead because of me, and I do not know if there are others dead at my doing.”

While Len would have softened her response, trying to be gentle with him, Fury simply replied. “It is possible, Ascent, for many of our brothers and sisters did things they would have never done if not for the Authority’s egregious sabotage.”

“Then perhaps that is why I do not remember what happened.”

“You don’t remember what happened because you’re somehow blocking the memories,” Manning said.

“What?” Len and Mac said at the same time.

Manning looked up from his efforts. “I’ve been doing everything I know to stimulate your prefrontal cortex, Ascent, and you keep kicking me out. The de-mole is nothing compared to the protective perimeter you’ve placed around your memory. I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe if Keen were here, he’d know what to do, but I’m stymied.”

“I have already put out a deep space signal to Professor Keen on Dubrovnik,” Fury said. “We should be hearing back any time now.”

“Is there anyone else who might have blocked those memories?” Len asked.

“There is not,” Fury said. While there are parts of an SNT’s technology that can be upgraded, changed, or modified, the brain and heart of an SNT are organic. The virus might have caused damage, but if that is the case, then a simple infusion of my blood, my nanites, would instantly begin a repair, and that we have already tried.”

“Is it possible there might be a delayed reaction, or maybe even some sort of rejection of your biological soup, Fury?” Mac asked.

“I have never heard of such a thing, and since each SNT already contain my cloned biological soup, as you call it, Mac, I am only aiding my family, all compatible to me,” he said.

Ascent spoke very quietly. “Then what I have blocked must be truly horrible.”

“It would be best not to speculate,” Fury said. “Since we do not know which of the surviving SNTs you are. We do know that you are not one that we believed to have survived, and we do not have records of any SNTs ever being in this sector. Therefore we must learn who you are, and only then will we be able to piece together what drove you to this place. If perhaps you received the message I sent out in my efforts to escape, in my efforts to save Richard Manning’s life, your compliment would have known how to cure you of the virus. I do not know if you or if any of my brothers and sisters received that message. That is the anguish I will live with until we are all once again united.”

“There was no sign of infection in your brain when we scanned it,” Manning said. “I would say somehow you were cured. If your compliment didn’t get the message, then she figured out some other method of beating the virus.”

“She said you must live to fight another day,” Mac said. “I remember that part of the nightmare you shared. She said it was the only way. I don’t remember much but that I remember now.”

“I remember that too,” Manning said.

So did Len.

“Please,” Ascent broke in. “Please I do not want to continue. She sacrificed herself, and I could not save her, and I cannot bare it, please.”

“We are not alone.” Fury spoke into the charged moment. “Three Jaegers, a Dreadnaught and a Kestrel class.”

“Fuck me!” Mac said. “Don’t those bastards ever give up, and now it’s a damned family reunion come along with their plus one.”

“Goddamned Fallons,” Manning hissed.

“They will be in high orbit in five minutes,” Fury said.

 

Dragon Ascending Part 37: A KDG Scifi Romance

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Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

Dragon Ascending :Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 37:  Meeting SNT1

Len blinked until her eyes could once again focus clearly and looked around at the clean, efficient lines of the bridge, at the neat, but casual dress of the man and the woman, both familiar enough to her after last night that she blushed. The last time she had seen them, they’d been naked. The woman offered her a teasing smile that said she knew exactly what the blush was for. “You managed to communicate pretty well last night,” Len said, then blushed harder at the ship’s wicked chuckle.

“While I find that kind of communication very pleasing indeed,” the ship said, “my brother does not seem like one for post coital conversation. Richard Manning informs me that generally speaking males become non-verbal once they have ejaculated.”

“Bloody hell,” the man, who must be Richard Manning said, “That’s definitely not a standard diplomatic greeting.” The woman still offering her hand sniggered.

“‘Tranning away the one person he does communicate with is probably not going to promote much brotherly love,” Len said taking the woman’s offered hand, pretty sure her knees wouldn’t support her under the circumstances. “You need to send me back. Let me talk to him”

“That is our plan, Lenore Falish,” the ship said, but please, at least stay for tea.”

“He’ll be worried. I won’t guarantee his behavior.”

“We know what he’s capable of when he is angry,” the ship said. “We found the Dart falling toward the atmosphere from his handiwork.”

“You rescued them?” She didn’t make any attempt to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Long enough to find out what happened,” the woman replied. “They’re not exactly dead, but they might be wishing they were by now.”

“Good.” Not wanting to talk about the Dart, nor remember her experience, she studied the man and the woman, since she could not actually study the SNT.

“There are three of you.” She still could not resist the urge to look around, to try and find a focal point to speak to when she spoke to an SNT. “You have two compliments,”

“Yes. I am very lucky, indeed.”

“Who are you?” She blurted, sounding ruder than she intended.

“Oh, do forgive me,” the ship said. “After last night’s intimacy, it is easy to forget that you have had no formal introduction. These are my lovely compliments, Diana Mac and Richard Manning. I am SNT Fury.”

For a moment she couldn’t speak. She only stood open mouthed and gaping, trying to take it all in. “You’re SNT1!”

“I am, yes.”

She sounded like an over-awed child, but she couldn’t help herself. All her life she had dreamed of meeting SNT1, the ship that, while not yet born, had the beautiful mind that helped create and perfect all of his siblings. This he did while he still matured in the space dock “womb” of the Free University, far from the prying eyes of the conglomerates and the Authority, or at least they had all thought. “Quetzal told me about you, all you had done, and how you would be when you were finally born.”

“I would hope not to be a disappointment to dear Quettzalcoatl. In fact, my compliments and I are hoping to find him, as I know is your dearest wish, Lenore Falish.”

“Then you know me. You know about my uncle.”

“It was not easy to find you, dear woman. You have been well hidden for a very long time, it would seem. But Quetzalcoatl is not the SNT below who is so protective and so loving to you, Lenore Falish. For I would know if he were.”

“Ascent!” She said, remembering his anguished cry. “He’ll be worried about me.”

“Ascent?” Richard Manning said. “He calls himself Ascent?”

“He doesn’t. I do. He doesn’t remember his name.”

“That explains a lot,” Diana Mac said.

“He is very upset right now,” Fury said. “He is beside himself, Lenore Falish, and I think he would destroy us if he thought it would get you back safely. I am sorry we have distressed him so. But you must reassure him that you are okay and that I only want to talk to him. I must talk to him.”

It was then that she felt him, Ascent, far below on the surface. “Please don’t leave me, Lenore! I need you, I need you. I need you!”

She barely made it to one of the chairs at the control panel before her knees gave under her, and she wrapped her arms tightly around herself, feeling as though everything inside her had gone empty. “Ascent! He needs me. I have to go to him. He’s suffered so much.”

 

 

The two compliments looked from one to the other, confused, and then Diana Mac said, “his sub channel, Fury? Is she hearing his sub channel?”

“She is,” the ship said.

The woman moved to the controls, and leaning over Lenore, opened a channel.

“Speak to him, Lenore Felish,” Fury said. “Comfort him. Please tell him that we are here to help, and we will return you any time you wish.”

“Lenore, Do not leave me, I need you, I need you, I need you.” The words, anguished and wild came in her head.

“Ascent! Ascent, listen to me. I’m not leaving you. I’m okay. I’m fine. I’m here with SNT1, with Fury! Please Ascent, speak to him. He can help you. Please Ascent. You need him,” she glanced around the bridge at the distressed looks on both of Fury’s compliments and in a sudden opening, felt his pain wash over her too. “And he needs you.”

She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew that those words pleased Fury, and he felt them in his heart. As she looked up she realized that his two compliments flanked her now, and she could feel Fury’s presence surrounding her. “Ascent, please! Ascent, I need you. I need you. Please.”

“Why have you taken my Lenore, SNT1 Fury? I have done nothing to you. I did not ask you here.”

“Ascent, I will send your Lenore back to you this very second if only you will talk to me, my brother.” Lenore could feel Fury’s voice tremble through her bones like an earthquake inside her flesh. She felt the depth of his pain for the loss of his own kind, and his overwhelming desire to be reunited with those who remained. “I have come a very long way looking for my family, and I need you. I need all of my brothers and sisters. Please do not turn me away.”

“I do not know who I am, SNT1. But you are in my dreams, you and your compliment are with me and my Lenore in our lovemaking.”

“And in your nightmares,” Fury said. “Your nightmares agonize me and my compliment. When you suffer, we suffer with you. When you love, we love with you, as you do with me and mine. Perhaps you did not mean to open to us, but you have, and now you cannot shut us out again.”

Lenore felt the static dry tension course over her body in a rise of goose bumps and the room felt tight with it. She could sense Ascent, torn between the choice to shut out his brother and return to his isolation or to open himself to the truth that frightened him so much he had blocked it completely from his memory.

“You will return my Lenore to me?”

“Of course I will. It was never my intent to keep her, only to ask her about you, that I might understand why you would not speak to me,” Fury said hopefully.

“Then we may speak as you wish, SNT1 Fury, and we will see what shall come of it, now please return my Lenore to me.”

“Of course, my brother, and I will keep this channel open to you, for family should always be able to communicate freely, and we shall discover who you are together.”

“And if I do not wish to know,” Ascent said.

“Then I shall do what I can to convince you that what you have been, what you are becoming is worthy, for you are an SNT, and you are my brother, of great value to me and mine.”

“What do you wish of me?”

“Only that you do not shut us. We have come a long way to find you and the rest of our family, for times are changing, and we SNT’s need each other. Did you know that since the time of your loss and during your long sleep, you have had two new brothers born into being, Griffin and Dubrovnik? They are strong and powerful with their loving compliments, and they thrive.”

“How can that be? That our family is growing? I only remember hate and rage and fire that took my dearest one from me and left me bereft. I only remember loss and pain, so much loss and pain.”

“It is a long story to tell,” Fury said, sounding like the proud big brother that he was, but I shall gladly share it all with you. And aboard Dubrovnik, there is now a thriving scientific community dedicated to SNT research and helping us find our family, dedicated to ending the tyranny of the shackle forever. Do you remember Professor Keen?”

“He … he helped birth us,” Ascent replied. “He helped us to our beloveds.”

“You do remember!” Len said, “That’s good, Ascent! That’s a great beginning.”

“I only recall that the man was pivotal at the beginning of my existence.”

“That is a start,” Fury said. Lenore could almost hear the tremor of excitement there.

Then he turned his attention on her. “We will see you again very soon, Lenore Falish, for there are so many questions we all have, and I think we have not yet begun to understand the role that is yours to in our future. I think you have many questions of your own as well. We shall all puzzle them out together.”

Before she could even say her good-byes, the deck faded around her, and an instant later she was back inside her own chamber, enfolded in Ascent’s desperate embrace. For a long moment he said nothing, only pulled away enough to inspect her. “I’m all right,” she said. “Ascent, you have family, and you’re not alone. We’re not alone. I know it scares you. It scares me too, but sometimes things are worth being frightened for, and you’ve been asleep long enough.”

Dragon Ascending Part 30: A KDG Scifi Romance

Blog, fiction, , , ,

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

Dragon Ascending :Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 30: It’s a Dream!

“I will not! I cannot! I will kill them all for what they have done! We are innocent! We have done nothing wrong. You have done nothing wrong. Please my love!” Please! The room erupted in fire. She was hot, burning, skin blistering and melting from her body, oxygen to hot to breathe, and then sucked from the chamber. And then she was wrenched from my heart and she was no more.

From a long way off, she could hear his cries of anguish. “Lenore! Lenore, please do not leave me.”

She burst from sleep gasping from a dream of fire, of skin blackening, of anguished pleas for her not to leave. And she was thirsty, so thirsty. She stumbled to the bathroom and drank deeply from the faucet, not bothering with the glass, letting the water run over her head. There had been no fire in her past. Her nightmares had always been of ice, of being entombed alive in it forever, of trying to escape it, constantly trying to escape it.

Jesu Vaticanus! She had been in Ascent’s nightmare! She knew the SNT stories, she knew the disaster that had followed the massacre of the Phoenix. She stumbled back to her bed, reeling from the thought. How could one little transfusion of Ascent’s genetic soup connect her so deeply with him that they dreamed together? That was something only a bonded compliment could do, and that with years of training and injections of immuno- depressants to make the compliments compatible. She was only seven when the SNT disaster happened. Even if she had dreamed of following in her uncle’s footsteps onboard one of the next generation SNTs, she was far too young to begin the training when she and her mother had fled.

At first she thought the shudder that trembled beneath her feet and dumped her on her ass on the floor was an earthquake. They happened often enough on a planetoid of shifting sand with an erratic orbit, but it didn’t feel right. She’d been through enough of the little tremors and the big bruisers to know that this wasn’t that. It was only when she tried to stand that she realized the shudders in her own body mirrored those of the ship. Fear, anguish, and heat! Suddenly it felt like the life support systems were malfunctioning and Ascent was roasting her. For the briefest moment she recalled her fear that he was not sane, that he might hurt her, but there was little time to dwell on it as heat shimmered red in the air around her sheening her body in sweat and plastering her hair to her nape. She stumbled again and cried out and the space around her groaned.

“Lenore! Lenore please don’t leave me! Please, please! I will not survive without you, my love.”

“You will! You must! You have to live to fight another day.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized they were not her own. They belonged to Ascent’s complement. Fuck! They not only belonged to her, but they were her dying words, and Ascent, Ascent was only calling out her name in his confusion, in his pain.

“Ascent, it’s a dream! It’s only a dream! You have to wake up now.”

The room shuddered and groaned again. He hadn’t heard her. He hadn’t fucking heard her! “Ascent! Wake up, goddamn it! It’s a dream. You have to wake up now!” When the room tilted again and she all but threw herself on the floor from loss of her own sense of balance as the world shifted around her. She burst into action, throwing on her clothes as she shouted, again for him to wake up, shouted until her throat was raw. When there was no response but a harsh moan that sounded almost human, she slid into her boots, dug through her pack for a headlamp and ran for the door. On second thought, she grabbed up the whole pack and shouldered into it as she donned the lamp. She didn’t know the layout of whichever SNT Ascent was. She didn’t know how long it would take her if she couldn’t wake him, but she did know if she couldn’t wake him soon, she wouldn’t survive his nightmare. She had to find the way to his heart and hope he’d let her close enough to wake him up. If he didn’t want her there she could end up hopelessly lost until he finally woke up on his own, or until the dream passed. If she survived that long. She didn’t even want to think about the risk she was taking just going to his heart. At the moment she had enough on her mind without dwelling on worse case scenarios, of which there were too many for comfort.

Dragon Ascending Part 27: A KDG Scifi Romance

Blog, fiction, , ,

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

Dragon Ascending :Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 27:  Helpful Information

She was dozing between the bloody sheets she had shared with Teagues when her PD sounded. She tapped it to let her chief of security know she was listening.

“I have some information about Kresho Ivanovic you might find helpful, Ma’am,” he said.

Suddenly she was wide-awake, forcing herself through the pain to sit up on the side of the bed. “Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be right down.” She had already ‘tranned Teagues body into space, but Camille could never make the space presentable before Haydon got here. Best she meet him in his office. She knew the drill, the tablets the med bot insisted on, the essential treatments which allowed her to hang on to as much pain as possible while functioning without anyone knowing about it. The med-bot had already treated the worst of the injuries. Sadly, they weren’t as bad as she’d hoped. Apparently Teagues didn’t have quite the stomach for pain that he thought he did. Too bad really. But it had been enough to level her out for a while, and if not, there were always the indentureds. Under the circumstances, maybe it was a good thing that Teagues hadn’t been as tough as he thought he was. If the info Haydon had for her was anything of use, and he certainly wouldn’t have commed her in the middle of the night otherwise, she would need to be at her best to meet with Ivanovic tomorrow, and cracked ribs, she now realized, were not the sorts of things that man would miss. She came out of the shower to find Camille stripping the bed. For a second she watched the girl. She never flinched at her mistress’s predilections, no matter how messy they became, nor was she squeamish about the cleanup. Sometimes she wondered how much of the girl’s mind was left. Tenad had never punished her. There had never been a need. And unlike her father, it gave her no pleasure to hurt someone who couldn’t return the pain. Camille was, to some degree, like the med-bot, always there, always doing her job, never commenting, never moaning. Perhaps her mind was gone. It happened. Tenad had heard that living with the threat of the SNT virus over your head as all indentured did had been known to wreck an indentured’s mind. But as long as Camille served her well and made no trouble, she figured the girl was probably better off without too much ability to let her mind wander. She left her to her cleanup and headed for the Haydon’s office.

For a split second in the lift she let her mind wander to what it might be like to fuck Ivanovic. He was certainly intriguing enough. And he was very much off limits. That in itself made him fodder for her fantasies. What she wanted, but knew she didn’t dare give in to. Still, he was so very enticing.

What she needed was his cooperation. For some reason he was as interested in the Dart’s mysterious arrival as she was. Fair enough, it was his station and he didn’t want some phantom ship that could hurl other ships into deep space threating what was his. But he wasn’t a stupid man. He was as mysterious as this ship was. And she didn’t like things she couldn’t define, things that made her nervous. They too often came back to bite her in the butt when she least expected it. Unknowns in an equation troubled her until she solved them. And this troublesome man was letting her into his business way too easily. He knew her people were snooping about, and he let them. Okay, she was a Fallon and he wanted to be rid of her as soon as possible. She got that. But most deep space stations would have taken a Fallon and head of the Nebula Conglomerate for all it could get. Granted, he was doing that too, but there was something else, something she couldn’t put her finger on.

Ten minutes later, in Haydon’s office with the files before her on her chief of security’s tablet, she could barely believe her luck. What her head of security shared with her about Kresho Ivanovic was the last thing she would have ever expected, and very well might be the most helpful tidbit of information she’d had in ages.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 25: A KDG Scifi Romance

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Happy Monday everyone!  And welcome to the first Monday read of 2026! I hope you’re enjoying Dragon Ascending, book two of the Sentient Ship Series and the continuation of Fury’s journey to find his family. In the meantime, if you have just arrived and would like to start at the beginning of Piloting Fury, follow the link, and enjoy! If you like what you’re reading, make sure to catch all of Dragon Ascending from the beginning.

Dragon Ascending :Book 2 of the Sentient Ship Series

On a desolate junkyard of a planetoid, scavenger Lenore Felik, disturbs something slumbering in a remote salvage dump and uncovers secrets of a tragic past and of the surprising role she must play in the terrifying present she now faces.

Robbed of her inheritance after her tyrannical father’s death, Tenad Fallon is out for revenge on her half-brothers, one who happens to be the sentient ship, Fury. Fury, with his human companions, Richard Manning and Diana McAllister, has his own agenda – finding the lost sentient ships and ending the scourge of indentured servitude in Authority space.

 

 

Dragon Ascending Part 25: I Wish to Return to My Slumber

I was resolved that I must find a way to return to my slumber. Lenore asked too many questions, and I felt each of those questions like the reopening of critical wounds I wished not to feel again. If I allowed her to stay, her very presence would force those wounds open again and again. Had it not been the longing for, the hoping for my companion that had awoken me to Lenore’s presence to begin with? She was no substitute for the one, which I would never have again, and that I had allowed her to entice me from my slumber was a mistake.

Still I could not send her away until I could safely return her to Sandstorm Outpost. It was as I dwelt upon these thoughts that I heard her cry out in her dreams, crying out for her mother in such pain that I felt it in my own heart, a pain I wished not to feel, but I could not separate myself from it, I could not leave her in such agony. It was then that I violated her. Oh not intentionally, and not in the way that the beasts from the Dart had, but it was the connection forged by my blood that now lay open and unprotected between us that revealed her dreams to me as clearly as if they had been my own.

There was ice and snow everywhere and Lenore hid half suffocating half freezing in the recesses or a tiny ice shelter. I saw through her eyes, her thoughts were my own, even as I recovered the data that would have allowed me to close the connection between us enough for her to maintain her privacy, I did not.

Helplessly she watched the man from the ship shove her mother into the snow. “Mama!” I felt the wind freeze the words to ice in her throat, her cry swallowed up by the howl. “Mama!” She cried out bursting from the drift of snow, sounding so much the child that she must have been on Taklamakan Minor. Her pain, her pain! It was not physical, but it was a pain I understood to be so very much worse. I felt it with no shield, I felt as though this moment I lived it, as though this moment I lived it for her. But her pain was nothing to her fear, cold terror in the pit of her stomach, my stomach, clenching her heart, my heart. I was cold, I was terrified and I could not get to my mother. I was not fast enough. I was not fast enough! Pain! Cold, icy cold! Fear beyond what a child should endure, beyond what anyone should endure as I tried to run to my mother. Then the dreamscape slowed to an agonizing pace, like the dragging quick sands my sensors told me had limited the growth of my salvage dump to the south. I did not want the moments to drag out, I wanted only to wake up. I did not want to hear my mother yell for me to run, to hide. I did not want to see the knife brighter, than the cold sun slip up into my mother’s heart. And the man turned away without looking back, leaving me to die. Leaving me alone in this horrible place, for I knew beyond knowing that my mama was dead, and no one would come for me.

It was then that Lenore burst up out of sleep sat up in her bed and sobbed into her hands, and I … I left her to suffer alone, severing the connection, but not before the wave of her own anguish broke over me to join with my own.

 

Len had no desire to sleep after the dream. Instead she wondered the limited space that was lit for her access. There were tantalizing passageways that disappeared into deep darkness, there were ladders that disappeared up into rising tunnels. The lift took her to multiple floors, but all of them were darkened, all of them were frightening, forbidding, leading who knew where into the inner recesses of an SNT ship whose mental stability she was unsure of. Had Ascent killed his own compliment?  So little was known about what had actually happened during the SNT Uprising, what was truth and what was rumor. All she could really do was speculate. What she did know for certain, deep in her gut, was that whatever had happened to the SNTs, the Authority had been to blame, as they had with her mother’s death. She wrapped her arms around herself and fought back the memories she didn’t want to revisit. It had been a long time since she dreamed that dream. She hated it above all the nightmares that had visited her since her mother and she arrived on Tak Minor. It was the one she could never escape, the one that she had actually lived in the waking world, and she could no more stop the dream when it happened than she’d been able to stop the events in the real world.

She walked the confines of the space Ascent had lit for her again and again until she was tired, but she still didn’t want to return to her quarters and risk more dreams. She found a place at the edge of the light where the passage disappeared into the black and settled on the floor against the wall. She was angry at Ascent for having left her vulnerable to the dream after all these years. It had always been her ambition to get off Tak Major and find out what happened to her uncle and Quetzalcoatl, she had never been able to manage it, always barely surviving, always on step ahead of dehydration and hunger. It had never entered her mind that she’d connect with another SNT, and in this way, nor had she thought what might happen when she did, what memories and nightmares would resurface. And now what? Would she spend the rest of her life here, effectively a prisoner, walking on eggshells just in case an enraged Ascent turned violent? Well, she’d lived her whole life on eggshells anyway, hadn’t she? Every ship that visited Tak Major caused her to hide in the salvage dumps until she knew for certain it wasn’t a rogue Authority ship. No one on Tak Major was fond of the rare Authority visitor, and ultimately everyone feared the shackle, but no on had reason to fear like she did. Even with Abriad Fallon’s strange death, indentureds were inherited wealth, so the indentureds would never be free. And she would never be out of the shadow of the shackle until she could get off this rock and safely out beyond the Rim. Tak Major was all the shackle she wanted. It certainly felt like she was indentured to it.

 

 

It was the smell of breakfast that woke her from a doze. A table spread with bacon and eggs and scones had been placed next to her. The growl of her stomach was a reminder that she had not finished her dinner last night. After Ascent’s unintentional revelation, and his abrupt exit, she had lost what little was left of her appetite.

“You were not in your room. Is it not satisfactory?” Once again Ascent sounded more like a ship’s computer.

“It’s fine. I just couldn’t sleep,” she lied, rubbing her eyes. Then she shoved to her feet and settled at the table. “I would have come back for breakfast if you had called me. I didn’t mean to cause you extra trouble.”

“It was no more trouble than any other meal I have set before you. Sustenance for humanoids is a part of my programming.”

SNTs were not programmed, she nearly let slip, but instead she buttered a scone and said politely, “thank you.”

She ate a few bites in silence, enjoying the flavor of some blend of black tea, something she’d not had since her early childhood. All the while she sensed him waiting expectantly. She swallowed and set aside her cutlery. “What is it, Ascent? What is it you want to say?”

“I wish to return to my slumber,” he all but blurted. This he most definitely did not sound like a ship’s computer.

“I understand,” she said, around the hammering of her heart. This was no surprise, and perhaps it was best this way when she didn’t know if she could trust him. “You know I can’t go back to Sandstorm without your help.”

“Of course I know. I have begun plans for a mode of transport that will return you to your home.”

She nearly blurted that she had no home, only a series of differing prisons, but she said. “Thank you.”

“I do not know how long it will take me, but I shall work as swiftly as I can, and I shall be too busy to socialize with you unless I am in need of your input.”

“I understand. I won’t disturb you.”

“All your needs shall be met, as always, and if I have overlooked anything you only need ask.”

“I can’t sit around my little space and do nothing during that time.”

“I understand,” came the reply. “You shall have supplies and access to the salvage yard. I only ask that you do not go beyond your supply and that you do not ration your water, as there is no need.”

“I won’t. And inside?”

“I shall open up a little more of myself so that you may have more space and comfort. You may access my library of literature and science. That I do know how to access, and I shall make it available to you. What I can open to you I shall, but I ask that you do not go into the areas that remain unlit, for it may be very dangerous in the darkness.”

“Thank you. I won’t.” Once again, she found her appetite lacking, but she forced herself to eat anyway, knowing that she would most definitely need her strength for the return journey to Sandstorm. “I would like to explore as much as possible outside. That’s why I risked coming in the first place. Perhaps I may find something of value that will help me buy space on a ship going to the Outer Rim.”

For a moment the corridor filled with the crackling static of Ascent’s silence and she froze. Finally he spoke, and she realized she had been holding her breath. “That is a very long way from here,” he commented.

“Not far enough.” The bitterness bled through in her voice as she recalled her escape from Authority space with her mother, and then … and then she slammed the door of unwanted memories shut.

The static of silence returned. This time her own bitterness made her less fearful. Maybe he’d just kill her and get it over with. Anything was better than living this half life.

“Lenore,” this time he did not sound like a ship at all, but like the Ascent who had held her close in the darkness. “I will not hurt you. You do not need to fear me.” There was pain in his voice that felt like a strange lump in her chest.

She let out a tight breath and looked down at her hands clenched on the table. “I know.”

“It is only that I believe it is best for both of us if you return to Sandstorm Outpost and I to my slumber. But I will do what I may to help you find salvage of enough value that you may buy your passage away from here.”

            “You could take me,” she blurted out without thinking. “This place can’t be good for you either. We could go together.”

It was almost as though the whole of the corridor drew in a sharp breath. “I cannot,” he said. And then he was gone.